REAL is a Chicago-based, youth-centered program designed to assist
children and adolescents in developing critical thinking and
effective communication skills needed for life-long learning and
success both in and out of school. REAL understands the importance
of helping young people find a voice and perceiving themselves, as
well as others, as fully human with an innate ability to be viable
change agents in their respective communities and in their own
lives.

REAL engages students in becoming more self-aware, in the course of
helping them gain insight into how social, political, and economic
dynamics shape the world around them. The importance of sharing
with others in a mutually responsible atmosphere is an attempt to
consciously embody in each student those elements that are
necessary for a healthy individual.

REAL offers young people a safe space, within the school
environment, to interpret and express who they are by way of
arts-based projects, critical literacy activities, and life-skills
curriculum. Through dialogue and artistic expression, students
become more aware of how to identify and confront personal and
social challenges. In the words of one of our student founders,
“REAL is a medium of expression for the previously unexpressed.”